Abstract
The USAID-funded Decentralized Basic Education (DBE) Project aims to improve basic education delivery in Indonesia. The DBE1component aims specifically to improve the management and governance of basic education at the level of districts as well as schools and Islamic madrasah. The purpose of this study is to describe the impact of DBE1 on schools and madrasah, as assessed in a number of studies. Throughout this report, the term 'school' is taken to include madrasah and regular schools, both public and private. Project activity commenced early 2006 in the first cohort of elementary schools; some 526 schools in 25 districts spread over eight provinces. In early 2009, after three years of project implementation, DBE1 began to conduct a comprehensive study to assess the impact of DBE1 programs to support school-based management in these schools, as reported in Chapter Two. While routine monitoring, which is reported in Chapter Three, provides evidence that suggests project outputs are having an impact in improving management and governance in schools, its main purpose is to measure project implementation performance. This present impact study, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, is needed to better measure impact of DBE1 interventions as well as the nature of that impact and factors associated with success and failure. While DBE1 works intensively at both district and school levels and has pioneered important approaches to improving the management and governance of basic education at both, the scope of this study is confined to the level of school and community. The study is also confined for the most part to the first cohort of 526 target schools, where the program has been running for at least three years with direct support from DBE1. (Author abstract, modified)